Hylton not putting any pressure on this season

Mike Simmonds

Hatters striker Danny Hylton hasn’t put himself under any extra pressure this year to try and replicate the most prolific season in his career.

Hylton, who was back in the starting line-up for the first time in League Two on Saturday after recovering from a leg injury, said: “Like I’ve said all along, whether I score or don’t score, whether I play or don’t play, I just try and bring what I can to the team.

“I don’t put too much pressure on scoring goals, I just think if you don’t put that pressure on you, go out, relax and play your normal game, then goals will come anyway.

“As long as I bring something to the team then I’ll be happy.”

While last season Luton relied heavily on Hylton’s goals, boss Nathan Jones sought to change that in the summer, bringing in Crawley Town frontman James Collins.

The striker has already got four goals to his name, and Hylton insisted any rivalry is merely a friendly one.

If you don’t put that pressure on you, go out, relax and play your normal game, then goals will come anyway.

Danny Hylton

He continued: “Competition is good, we’re not enemies, we’re team-mates!

“The four strikers that there are, if more come in, we’re not fighting against each other to see who can score the most, we’re competing as a team to help collectively get us out of this league.

“Of course as a forward you’re going to want to score goals, every forward will want to be that top goalscorer.

“We all have personal targets, I have personal targets and so will everyone else, but my personal target is not to beat James Collins.

“It’s probably to get close to last season, but on the other side of that, I won’t put too much pressure on if I go four, five, six games without scoring.

“The main thing I’ll look at is if I’m playing and I’m contributing to the team, if the team’s winning, then Collo can go and score a hat-trick every game. If we are top of the league, that’s the main thing.”

Meanwhile, keeper Marek Stech was delighted to see his team-mate back in action, adding: “He’s been working so hard for the last month or two months and it’s nice to see him back.

“On Tuesday night he played 45 minutes and played nearly the whole game this time so he’s been absolutely spot on, and it’s really nice to see him back.”